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Discipline

Some years ago, in a Japanese-Colombian conference, a guy who is half Japanese and half Colombian mentioned something they apparently say in Japan, roughly translated as:

Sooner or later, discipline overcomes intelligence.

This has resonated with me, and fits with anecdotes from elsewhere, echoing Paul Graham’s take that determination is the number one predictor for startup success, the tales of John Carmack’s incredible dedication and hard work, and the situations in which disciplined work and study have served me well.

I believe that discipline can be cultivated, like many other habits, so I will work on it this year.

I will start by writing a post each weekday, with no restrictions as to time, length and subject. I will then impose a schedule, and a length; I don’t really think a restriction on subject would help. The objective is to build discipline in this area, and grow it into others, then look at the fruits of it and see if it is worthwhile.

Last time I checked, I had above-average IQ; hopefully cultivating discipline will be a multiplicator of that gift, and this will be an better year than otherwise for that.

I’ll archive the texts written with discipline cultivation in mind under the “Daily Writing” category for future reference.